E293 – Mark Stephen Pooler – How to upgrade your mindset through perseverance and awareness.

Junaid Ahmed 0:10
Thank you for tuning in to hacks and hobbies with your host Junaid in season two of hacks and hobbies were visited by our amazing guests coming from all walks of life, what to learn their story, their struggles and their journey on how they got to where they are today. So stick around.

In this episode, I could speak with Mark, Stephen polar. He has a radio presenter at the good intentions show, UI media network. And we've been connected for some time and I really loved what Mark was doing with his network, how he's helping Entrepreneurs create that mindset and belief system that makes their success a reality. And this is something that all of us struggle with, you know, mindset is something that is basically pushed into us from a very young age and to be able to change our mindset takes real effort. So I'm really happy and really honored to have mark here on the podcast. Thank you so much mark for coming on to the podcast.

Mark Stephen Pooler 1:29
Hi Junaid. And thank you so much for that great introduction. And I'm really happy to be invited on your amazing podcast today.

Junaid Ahmed 1:41
Thank you so much. Absolutely, my friend. So what I was trying to get into is that you know, it's our, our mindset is made up from a very young age and as we go to school and as we go through the systems, we are taught to be a certain someone You know, conforming to a way that it's like, wow, this is crazy. So I really love what you're doing and how you're helping people get out of that mindset and really accept success in their lives because if you don't change our mindset, a lot of times people who become entrepreneurs or go from being an employee to an entrepreneur, they think that freelancing is entrepreneurship but really that isn't it. So tell me a little journey about yourself and how what inspired you to take other people and help them shape their mindset to become successful?

Mark Stephen Pooler 2:49
Well Junaid that's quite a big question there. could take a while course and that but going Back to mindset. I have had bad mindset and I've had a good mindset. And going back to my childhood. I was heavily bullied throughout my childhood about the way I looked about my sexuality. Primary School before I even knew my

Junaid Ahmed 3:24
little number here.

Mark Stephen Pooler 3:27
Hello there little one.

Junaid Ahmed 3:32
I just got back from school.

Mark Stephen Pooler 3:36
That's amazing. You should keep these in to show people to

Junaid Ahmed 3:40
court. Okay, I can water the plants in little bit.

Okay. Go play with us stuff and they'll come see you in a little bit.

All right. He just gets better from school at this time and he's like, Dad, you gotta come water the plants because you know,

Mark Stephen Pooler 4:06
the things happen I'm used to having to edit and

knowing a little bit though when guests make mistakes and then I think Oh no, I've got to edit it now.

Junaid Ahmed 4:20
No, that's not a problem at all. Live editing my episodes to make sure that no we catch capture. Like I'm not joining on and you know we're keeping the audience engaged. So yeah, absolutely.

Mark Stephen Pooler 4:33
Go back to that question then.

Junaid Ahmed 4:36
Yeah, you can continue from or your last half.

Mark Stephen Pooler 4:40
That's a great question Junaid and that might take quite a while to answer. Going back to what you said about mindset. I have had bad mindset and I've had good mindset and I know which I prefer and You talked about belief systems and childhood. I had a hard childhood I was heavily bullied throughout my childhood, affect the way I looked about my sexuality at primary school before I even knew my sexuality myself. And it led to me having really low self esteem and low self confidence. By the age of 15, my life really started to get it started to spiral out of control a little bit I've been paying off at school, I left school with really bad grades, and I started drug taking at the age of 15. And it started on soft drugs to start with things like we need feta means and by the age of 18, it started to get on to every year drugs like ecstasy. And I have always been a worker. I started off my career as a hairdresser, working for some of the biggest name hairdressers. Here in the UK. I started to party every weekend, started to take drugs. And by the age of 21 module, taking good really spiraled out of control and I was addicted to crack cocaine and heroin. And I went on a party night out with friends tried to new clubbing drug one minutes having the time of my life. Excuse me, and the next minute, I won't Copeland hospital I just collapsed and died. My chest a drop in shaver underwear shock pads are being used on me to bring me back to life and bruises all my arm were adrenalin had been pumped into me to bring me back to life. And that was a wake up call for me Junaid I was living a bad life it was going nowhere. So I've slowly started to rebuild my life from work on my mindset. I read my first law of attraction book at the age of 21. And I thought there's really something in this that your thoughts can change your outcomes and was slightly later on in life. I really started working on my mindset. That was a turning point having read my first Law of Attraction book. It was a slow, slow Road to Recovery by the age of 30. I had had enough of working for other people and making money for them and not making much money for myself. So my entrepreneurial journey started, I left a pay job, having a mortgage to pay and took the risk to become an entrepreneur and set up my first freelance hairstylist, business and a year into my business. The best decision I ever made was to go into a more entrepreneurial journey. Someone introduced me an opportunity in network marketing. And this was a massive turning point in my personal development. I said yes to the opportunity. And the world of personal development and social media entrepreneurship, it really changed my life. All of a sudden, I was being coached how to build a team, how to do social media, the importance of mindset and business skills. And I did network marketing for two years, I built a team of 50 recruit into six different countries.

Junaid Ahmed 9:35
And then I really amazing,

Mark Stephen Pooler 9:38
thank you. And then I realized I wasn't following my true potential. I was that network marketing events, watching the professional speakers on stage sharing their motivational stories, and I thought I want to be on that stage speaking. That's My passion. So three years ago, I left network marketing and jumped in the deep end to become a professional speaker Now,

Junaid Ahmed 10:11
within three years

Mark Stephen Pooler 10:13
I have had an incredible up and down journey highs lows. I've spoken all over the UK. April this year I spoke on the same stage as jack Canfield at the wealth mastery event in Toronto. I have become an international best selling author number one in the USA, number one in Canada. Number two in the UK. I'm a public speaking coach helping entrepreneurs to develop their entrepreneurial skills, social media skills, public speaking skills. And then January this year, another amazing opportunity was offered me to do radio Now I have two radio shows nice. And it's just amazing when you're open to opportunities and say yes, you really can achieve great results and I know do national press and PR helping my clients get featured in Fox, NBC, ABC. I put my clients into business publications to help give them exposure helpful realty authority. And I also up my client with getting to bestseller status with their books as well.

Junaid Ahmed 11:38
That is quite a journey, my friend.

Mark Stephen Pooler 11:41
Thank you. I told you it would take quite a while.

Junaid Ahmed 11:45
No, that was that was beautiful because you know, I see I see that the different things that you did right so you working for somebody else, like he I don't want to do this anymore. And then you will presented an opportunity with network marketing that opened up your mind. To a totally different way of thinking and help you change your mind. And then you get into that thing, because now this is feeding you, where you're not getting that same kind of education while working somebody else. But then two years later, you're like, you know, this has been great. I've learned so much. But this is not, this is not the end all be all. What else can I do? Hey, I want to be a speaker. And then that's how you got to be where you are today. Being a radio presenter for multiple TV shows are multiple radio shows, which is very fascinating. Because if we don't take that effort, or if we don't look and see what we're doing wrong, we do get stuck in a rut. And yes, it does take a lot of effort on our own part as well as you know, having a Enough mentors around enough people that believe in you that help you, you know, get to that point where you really want to be. So that's this beautiful I love it.

Mark Stephen Pooler 13:12
Yes and I have a saying what I say you know Deuce do it in my speech. Always know when to end something and start something new. There's more than one path to your end destination. Like you said it's taken a lot of work Junaid I had low self esteem low self confidence at the age of 30. I was starting to sort my life A but I was still just doing my freelance hairdressing business. Yeah, never too late to work on us on yourself. I've invested around 25,000 pounds today to code Jeez, business mentors. I've had voice coaching, go to events, seminars, you have to invest in yourself and your own personal development. It's a hard journey. Being an entrepreneur, for the first year of my speaking career. I spoke all over the UK everywhere for free. I didn't turn penny. Yeah. And it's an often down journey. It's not always easy. But it's all about mindset work on your mindset, and personal development. And things start to get easier, the more momentum you build and the power of your network is so important as well. When I started in network marketing, are you had 3000 friends on Facebook? Sorry, I had 300 Facebook know i have i maxed out on Facebook of terrain 5000 on Instagram, couple of thousand on LinkedIn. Yeah, faves and on Twitter it's all about building a network and building really strong relationships. And I believe as well coming from a place of honesty and integrity because that's one thing I don't like is there can be a lot of fake personalities out there and it's really important to me to come from a place of integrity, trust and honesty and I feel that has really helped me to succeed because people can see on genuine

Junaid Ahmed 15:46
Yeah, that's that's beautiful. That's very, very true. And there's all sorts of people on social media, but then you find the genuine new ones by looking what they're doing, there's a lot of people that just created their accounts like two days ago or last month, and all they're trying to do is just to create a fake followership or, or create something that's not there to scam people or to, you know, be like, take advantage of unsuspecting people. So, it's very important to be genuine to have authentic information and, you know, be just a proper human being

Mark Stephen Pooler 16:33
correct. And look after your network as well. It's about building relationships with people and really getting to know people. And it's really strange that your network works because liking network marketing, friends and family they're not interested or on in opportunities. In general, it's normally people that you don't know, that will use that opportunity. And some of the people closest to you might not be interested, someone you don't even know that well will give you the opportunity. So it really is about being open minded and building great relationships. That's so true.

Junaid Ahmed 17:24
Because I've been I've been involved in network marketing to of course, you know, back in the days of visited Amway, quick star, two by two, there's there's several different ones and, and it's very true. You like they'll tell you, you know, you start with your family and then see who's interested. It's like, that's the wrong place to go. And that's the wrong way to approach it. And now we have the tools like social media where you can target we can figure out okay, who would be interested in this kind of product. Okay, I'm going to focus on talking to the people because they already have the same mindset that I'm looking for somebody who would be quick for my network. And what's really funny is that just three weeks ago, there's a new TV show called becoming a god in Central Florida. And it's, it's a shot and era, the 90s. And it focuses around network marketing, which is really, really interesting. I was like, wow, this is this is a kind of a refresher. But what you mentioned, you know, knowing your network who's in my network, just because I have 2000 people that are my connections that are in my address book right now does not mean that they know who I am. Correct. That knows what I am that, that I have the expertise that I can help them and like yourself and I myself, you know, working struggling through this journey myself. I left my job a few months ago and I've been struggling building networks and building you know, these connections and just now for the past few weeks have been seeing the result of communicating and connecting with these people with my on my network and how that's coming back. And it's it's the most unlikely place that you'll find somebody that's going to give you that break that's going to get you to the next level. It's really fascinating to see that happen and continue to just be fascinated like

it's amazing, very true and I

Mark Stephen Pooler 19:47
it's not always success. It's not always highs. It's not always winning. You have to realize with social media, entrepreneurship and the kind of business Nice that we're in, they're going to be lows. And that's why you have to realize that its highs and lows, and it's all part of the whole picture. And when you're having the lows, just know that the highs will come. Because when you look at some people's social media profiles, it may just look that it's winning all the time and make you feel like, Well, why am I struggling? But the fact of the matter is people only post the best of the best on social media. I have struggles I have rejection. I have lots of no's. I have lots of failures. But I know that I also create a lot of success and I do win a lot as well. So it's about just knowing that, you know, it's okay to struggle, and it's part of the whole picture.

Junaid Ahmed 20:54
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And, and highs and lows are part of life. I mean, If we look at the most micro skeptic thing, or even if you just look out, we have days and nights every single day that shows that highs and lows are necessary. Our heartbeat in itself is a series of ups and downs. The pumping of the blood it's it's what makes us human.

Mark Stephen Pooler 21:27
That's a great way to put it. Junaid Thank you.

Junaid Ahmed 21:32
man that was that was awesome. So, so you told us by your story how you came up from being of low esteem, low self esteem and then coming out of that and then being able to help others and help build their successes and and realize that it is necessary to see to have experienced Bad times have experienced the lows to be able to appreciate the High Times and the good times. What what are some of the other motivations that I mean, we've talked a lot about how that's shaped your, but what are your, like some of the daily motivations that help you get to the next step. I mean, do you have a system in place where you're, you have a connection point with your close circle people that you connecting with on a daily basis because a lot of the times we we might say, okay, we are an entrepreneur, but you gotta have, I'm sure there's some kind of you tell me if I'm going in the right direction and that question. I think with

Mark Stephen Pooler 22:56
with building success, I've lost quite a lot. Friends on the way and I found the more successful I'm getting people that I thought my were my friends can get jealous. And then I find that hard because I struggle like everyone else. But then I find people can get jealous when you are succeeding and you have to be very careful who you let in. If I only got a couple of real friends, my keep my business close to my heart. Yeah, I've got lots of connections, lots of friends, lots of associations.

Junaid Ahmed 23:45
Yeah. And

Mark Stephen Pooler 23:48
what motivates me every day.

I think I used to be running away from my past and always wanting To prove to everyone I've come from bullying and I can succeed and that used to be a big motivation, but I feel like now my motivation more is the future that I'm creating because I feel like I'm creating quite a lot at the moment and getting results. So it's more like I'm motivated by my vision for the future. I've got really strong rituals. I am recently doing rate self hypnosis program. I find that really effective. I work on my mindset every single day. I journal I meditate. I eat well, I take exercise every day. I draw rate my future. I read at least five pages of a book every night. The moment I'm reading jack Canfield success principles, it's around 500 page book. And I'm almost halfway through that. Nice. So I feel like rituals are so important and I'm just very careful now we won't elect him because you do have to be careful. There are lots of people out there that you might think are your friends. And as you start rising, they're not and you have to be careful of that the higher you gates, you do have to be careful with who you trust.

Junaid Ahmed 25:40
Yeah, that's a really good point about who to trust and, and who your friends used to be or who your friends are. A lot of the times, you're friends want you to stay the same. right because they don't want people don't like, like people don't like change, which is hilarious because we change off the friggin time. Yes, like daily basis on a daily basis, we're changing. You know, we change our clothes, we change our hair, we, you know, everything. And what's, what's crazy is that every seven days I think our bodies renewed because of the new body cells that our bodies need to verify that is it. Is it every week, or is it every seven? You know, seven days? I remember somebody

Mark Stephen Pooler 26:42
saying, sure, you know, I think keeps within around seven years, you've got almost a whole new body that's generated. I may be wrong, whether it's seven or 10. Yeah, it's just even even the information is really interesting.

Junaid Ahmed 27:00
Yeah, it is fascinating. So and then so a lot of the times people, when they see that you're, you are on a journey where you're going to be successful or you're going to be like a lot of lot of the true friends will tell you, Hey, don't forget about me when you are way up there. Right? Like in films, you you, for example, somebody who comes from a small town and they'll you know, and they're going and acting and movies, like, Oh, don't forget me. When you're up there, you know, on the big stage. Yes. But what's what's really funny was what you mentioned, right? People will become distance because they think they assume that you don't have enough time for them or that that they are taken away from us something that they did there. They can't really take away.

Mark Stephen Pooler 28:02
And also, I think when you do lose friends, it makes room for some incredible people to come into your life. So even though I have spoken about how you do lose friends, I miss associating with people when I was 30. I think it was insane. I've interviewed Hollywood celebrities on my radio show, be nice leaders. It's just incredible that when you do work on your personal development, you can really change who you are. And for all the bad people that you lose, or the fake people that you lose, it makes room for incredible people to come into your world.

Junaid Ahmed 28:54
That's true. you attract more people that are you are like yourself that work on themselves. are building something a memorable in the world? That's correct. Yes. Beautiful. Well, this was a really fascinating talk, I do have a few questions that I asked my guests towards the end. That brings us back to you know, the hacks and hobbies aspect of the podcast. I'm happy to share. Awesome. So what is the one hobby that you wish you had the opportunity to go into but you never got the chance?

Mark Stephen Pooler 29:36
Okay, so when I was 1615 because I left school before my 16th birthday with no with no exam results really mad. And I always had an interest in drama and wanted to go to drama school and at the time drama school with thousands and thousands pounds and my family wouldn't have been able to afford it. And they told me to go and get a proper job. Hence why I became a hairdresser. My passion was always to become an actor or a TV presenter. So now that I'm in radio, I feel like I have come back to my true potential. And that just shows it's never too late. I'm on TV, on smart TVs with my radio show, and radio. So I really feel like that's because of what I wanted to do when I was younger in drama, and TV presenting.

Junaid Ahmed 30:45
That's pretty that's pretty awesome. So tell us a little bit about the good intentions show. And it says UI Media Network. Is that the name of the company? The UI media network?

Mark Stephen Pooler 30:59
Yeah. So I have two radio shows. One is on being on the business innovators radio network where I interview business leaders and really spotlight their products and services or I interview best selling authors to really spotlight them and give them exposure help to give them credibility and authority. The good intention show is just such a great, great radio show. I'm co host of the show. And it's a spiritual radio network. And we interview event topics of health, business, lifestyle, entrepreneurship, spirituality, and the UI media network is a nonprofit foundation. And they're really looking to do good in the world and really, really great nonprofit foundation and the Radio Show is incredible. And it's got an audience of 3 million worldwide. Wow. It's an FM radio in Atlanta, Ohio, Kentucky and is broadcast on more to multiple multiple platforms Smart TV. And I love that show because I really get to interview people who've gone through change transformation. We talk about controversial topics, and it's really coming from a good place to really share code to the world. And that's what I love about it.

Junaid Ahmed 32:38
Beautiful. Thanks. Thanks for sharing that. That sounds really, really awesome. And on your, you know, favorite hobby being an actor. It's, it's still not too late. I mean, you are already in the media business. And as a podcaster we're in the media business too. And And I was I was talking to you on the bar, one of my mentors, Pat Flynn and he was saying you know, as a podcast host we have the ability to go in to events as a as a media and you get discounted tickets and sometimes they even let you in for free because you are part of the media you're part of the network. I was like really fascinated about that. That's correct and

Mark Stephen Pooler 33:29
not so much acting anymore because I don't actually feel like make a good actor. More TV I'd like to get my own TV show so anyone listening out there, please, torching Give me a break. Anything's possible. Maybe I'd like a little extras part in a really big horror movie. Sure. It fell that little dream.

Junaid Ahmed 33:57
Yeah, absolutely. Now I took that journey. Journey of acting and I really didn't know. I mean, I'm, I have passion for video production and whatnot. And for at one point my life I wanted to be a stand up comedian. But that never really fruit to creation because I didn't really have a lot of jokes. Anyhow, fast forward, I met my coworker and he's like, yeah, I'm a stand up comedian for past five years. I'm like, Whoa, really? Like, yes. And I've written plays, and I've, you know, directed music and written novels. And he's, he's basically done it all. And I was like, Dude, that is pretty fascinating. And then he's the one who told me, you know, you should start a podcast or you should talk about queen bee on my podcast, because one of the things that people will talk about, you know, hey, you have what's your new hobby this week. And it's still this same case because I'm always intrigued by the people and intrigued by what they're doing. But to bring the short, long story short, I've been I've had the opportunity to be in a TV show, to be an extra TV show in the background, or be a principal in a feature length film that they're filming, or be a principal actor and like this video commercial for retirement. It's like a retirement ad that I was in on. So yeah, I'm taking that step little bit little step at a time to go in the acting space and see what comes out of it. It's it's been a pretty fascinating journey so

Mark Stephen Pooler 35:43
far, an exciting journey and you just never know where you will end up. It could be a totally different place to where you thought you were going when you first started. Exactly. Enjoy the process. Follow your dreams, and you We'll get to where you want to get to.

Junaid Ahmed 36:03
Yeah, absolutely. Alright, next question is also related to TV and video. What would What is your favorite movie or TV show?

Mark Stephen Pooler 36:16
Favorite movie or TV show? I don't watch TV and I don't watch a lot of films. Sure. From the top of my head, it's a bit gruesome, but I quite like horror movies. I do them very often. Yes. Things like Silence of the Lambs. And the soul films. Yeah. Yeah, I just love horror films and famous Yeah, but I don't watch them very often. Yeah, I read a lot more now and I'm on YouTube quite a lot watching. mindset personal development trainers.

Junaid Ahmed 37:01
I like that I like that a lot. I'm in the same boat. I mean, I, I whenever I do get time, I'll watch TV and I'll watch movies. But I love going my mind and learning from others it's it's been pretty fascinating journey.

Mark Stephen Pooler 37:18
Awesome. There's no better investment than in personal development.

Junaid Ahmed 37:23
Exactly, exactly. So I know you said you mentioned you like horror movies. The next question is related to it but we can skip it if you will like to the question is, what movie would you choose if you got to play a character in it? Okay, so

Mark Stephen Pooler 37:46
I would love to be in a horror film and be in something like scream, okay, and be one of the people that get killed or My part wouldn't have to be too long but like still spoken and I'll be remembered.

Junaid Ahmed 38:09
Yeah. Yeah, that didn't make sense. I mean, you could be the first it could be the first or second character who was the victim and then they are now investigating the victim and how it's all happening.

Mark Stephen Pooler 38:25
Definitely cool.

Junaid Ahmed 38:28
Alright next question is Who is your favorite superhero Now this could be a hero or you know superhero in the comics world or it could be a hero in real life or you know, whatever on you. You can pick

Mark Stephen Pooler 38:45
okay will straight off the top of my head from my childhood. I was crazy about Superman Super Girl. And it was recently I said, I don't watch Telly but this movie was on the VJ, Furman and Chile say to a family member Yeah, BC still a really good film now so I would have to say Superman

Junaid Ahmed 39:11
Superman knows he is he is the main character he's turned a lot of hearts and he's he's truly pure of heart based on the struggles that he's gone through because right he is from a totally different planet and he's now growing up on earth and he has to I mean sure he doesn't have the mindset of being a Krypton Ian. But again he you know, he grows up and then when now he's an adult now he's learned that No, wait, I'm from a totally different planet. Now. He's gotta make all that adjustment and then come through. I do remember watching the first Superman and I'm still trying to remember you know how to You went into because daddy back stories with Smallville, you know, like eight years running and now you're discovering that here's Superman. That's Clark Kent and how he's discovering all these power that he has. And now he has to keep him hidden in this dirt. That story has been told many, many times through to the decades.

Mark Stephen Pooler 40:24
Yes. And I just think it would be pretty amazing to be able to fly and have superpowers. Oh, yeah. And do lots of great things. And I just think they're just great movies. They are timeless and they're just still great today.

Junaid Ahmed 40:44
Yeah, exactly. Alright, last question. If you were a board game, which board game would it be?

Mark Stephen Pooler 40:53
Okay, so one, I don't play board games. Off the top of my head again. monopoly because I like I like playing around with money and running and taking a bit of a gamble so nice a monopoly

Junaid Ahmed 41:15
fantastic, awesome. Well I know that my guests can find you my my audience can find you on your website Mark Stephen puller calm I will be sure to make that part of the show notes and thank you so much mark for your time and being on a on a guest being on the podcast.

Mark Stephen Pooler 41:40
Thank you so much Junaid. I've really enjoyed the conversation. It's been fun. You've been a great host and thank you for inviting me as a guest on your amazing podcast.

Junaid Ahmed 41:54
Absolutely. Thank you again, and I'm glad we were able to work out our timings and everything.

See you soon. Bye.

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